1. Field of Invention
The field of this invention is that of molded articles of manufacture. Many of these articles were made earlier from ceramics or plaster of Paris. These prior art articles are fragile. Others were made of solid plastics, like plastisols. Besides being expensive these all-plastics articles show the drawbacks of sensitivity to heat, heat distortion and cold flow at ambient temperatures. Other such articles were made of metal which causes noise when touching other metal parts and which are either expensive or complicated to manufacture with undercut type decorative effects.
2. Prior Art
Whereas the broadest claims of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,405,206 read on solidly filled articles, as originally filed, the scope of the claims therein are now limited to hollow articles of manufacture. This means that the skin component and the rigidifier jointly form a cavity, which does not apply to the instant application. Ser. No. 523,778, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,455, teaches articles of manufacture wherein the hollow interior of the skin component is filled with cellular compositions. The nature of the instant invention, wherein the rigidifier is non-cellular, is obviously different from the articles having cellular rigidifiers. The utility of the articles varies from each other also. U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,456 and application Ser. No. 525,667, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,420,729, deal with hollow articles. Application Ser. No. 764,272, filed Oct. 1, 1968, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,747 deals with solidly filled molded articles wherein the interior structural backing member is a cement. The preferred binders used in the instant application are organic thermosetting plastics including elastomers.
Canadian Pat. No. 557,617, Schneider, describes a shoe last. The outer shell component is a plastisol type. The shell is hollow and the interior is filled in a certain manner with a cellulose acetobutyrate composition. The described composition is, however, softish, flexible and resilient, instead of being rigid.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,037,771 of Gambino, issued June 5, 1962, describes improved bowling pins. Gambino's bowling pins are described as a FOUR COMPONENT system. The first component is a semi-flexible molded plastic skin or shell that is joined together from two halves, being formed of polyester resins reinforced with glass. The second component is an elongated small diameter metal tube which is axially disposed within said shell and extends from the top to the bottom thereof. The third component is a plurality of similar ring-shaped flat disks of expanded foamed plastic material which are superimposed on said tube and extended from the top to the bottom thereof in contacting non-adhering relation. The fourth component is a light semi-flexible filler, which completely fills the space between the disks and the inner surface of the shell, said light semi-flexible filler comprising a mixture of sawdust and a bonding resin consisting of a mixture of rigid polyester and flexible polyester. (See Gambino's Claim 1) Gambino's products differ from the products herein claimed.
The products herein claimed have:
1. a premolded and preset, jointless and one piece pliable and resilient plastic outer layer component that is hollow and has an access opening;
2. no second component is present that is an elongated hollow tube axially disposed from top to bottom thereof;
3. no third component is present, such as nonadhering disks, that is of a cellular structure;
4. no fourth component that is an inner structural backing member component that is semi-flexible. It does have an inner structural backing component that is rigid.
From the above, it can be seen that the product herein claimed has only two required components in its generic claim, whereas Gambino requires four components.